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[SOLVED] CHEAP (key word) Lefty Guitar for UK Resident
JoshEth
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As I said in my other thread, I'm from the UK. And I've been toddling along learning electric guitar for about a month or two now.
But today my friend (who's awesome on guitar...just sayin') told me something odd: there are left-handed guitars. And I'm left handed, so as of yet I'd been trying to reverse everything I've been learning. So this is good news.
The problem, however, is trying to find a cheap left-handed guitar somewhere.
Anybody help me out, possibly?
I've already been suggested this one: http://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Epiphone-Les-Paul-Special-II-Left-Hand-Heritage-Cherry-Burst/9TX
But today my friend (who's awesome on guitar...just sayin') told me something odd: there are left-handed guitars. And I'm left handed, so as of yet I'd been trying to reverse everything I've been learning. So this is good news.
The problem, however, is trying to find a cheap left-handed guitar somewhere.
Anybody help me out, possibly?
I've already been suggested this one: http://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Epiphone-Les-Paul-Special-II-Left-Hand-Heritage-Cherry-Burst/9TX
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Shogun Streams Vidya
Not the best guitar in the world but should do the trick for now and only 98 quid
or if you have a bit more to spend
Epiphone G-310, £183
or
Ibanez GRG170DXL, £205
Apologies if they aren't cheap enough, i'm thinking Guitar cheap and not normal cheap :P
* just looked at the link in your post, as a rule you can't go too far wrong with an Epiphone, especially a les paul copy so thats deffinalty worth a go
Robot Jelly
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Left-Handed-Electric-Guitar-Package-15W-Amplifier_W0QQitemZ250416320162QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item3a4df9cea2
I've also restrung a right handed one, and changed the nut around, this was ok-ish, and as it was for my daughter to learn on when she was younger, it did, but mine sounds much better.
Try looking on Freegle or greencycle, there's often free guitars there, or you could ask for one.
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"The power of the weirdness compels me."
Robot Jelly
Sure, you may be more nimble playing a left-hander but after enough practice the right handed way turns into second nature. And there are certain perks to playing right handed.
First of all, your selection of future instruments is much much broadened, not being limited to the specialty lines. (Generally cheaper too!)
Second of all (and more importantly) if you are ever without your guitar but someone else has one that you want to play, it's almost guaranteed to be a right handed guitar. If you only play left handed guitars you're going to be hard pressed to play anywhere except your home.
I've simply found that, while yeah I'm left handed, sometimes it's unbelievably more convenient to simply conform to right handed practices regardless of the initial frustration. That's my two cents.
Which is the other thing that should be mentioned. Guitar uses your "main hand" as your less involved picking hand, and your "off hand" as your fingering hand. Now, picking's a really integral part of playing guitar, but fingering wise, you'll be using your left hand more on r.h. guitar than l.h. guitar.
Also, yeah, like Epi said... let's say you're playing somewhere, you break a string, and someone else has a guitar sitting around. Oh damn, you can't use it. Or let's say you're having an impromptu jam session and... oh damn you don't have your guitar? You're out of luck.
"There are left-handed guitars" is not the same as "Play left handed guitars if you're left handed". I don't think I've ever once felt that if I switched to a lefty guitar I'd have an easier time playing it, it would've been easier learning it, or I'd be better at it than the way things are now.
If you really want to try it out, see if you can find a l.h. guitar in the area at a music store or something like that that you can play around with, but unless like, R.h. guitar makes your fingers bleed and l.h. guitar makes rainbows come out of the strings, I wouldn't necessarily think that you should go to L.H. guitar just because you're left-handed
Plus from the day I discovered rock music (S Club 7: numbing the musical tastes of conformist idiots until puberty), whenever I've done the cheesy air-guitar shit, it's always been with my left hand picking. Always.
I've got a guitar shop in my town (expensive as hell, but I didn't intend to buy from there) so I might go in and just have a bit of a fuck around with a left-handed guitar, see if it feels more comfortable and natural for me than a right-handed one.
Would you say acoustic or electric is easier to get to grips with? Cause I've neen learning electric, as I said, but I've been thinking about switching to an acoustic.
My personal opinion is whatever you're more interested in. They each have their pros and cons, but if you're wanting to learn some Cannibal Corpse, you're not going to be as happy with an acoustic.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stagg-C542-Classical-Spanish-Guitar/dp/B000IL4HK0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1266354582&sr=8-2
Plus they usually have an insanely good selection of left-handed electrics
This is pretty, for example
$230 too expensive?
Try a $175 Telecaster with Grover tuners
Seriously, give it a browse, I can vouch for their quality and I actually make part of my living off of playing guitar
The other side is if you're looking to learn a specific style or sound, go with whatever guitar is used for that. If you're a big fan of fingerstyle or folk, grab a steel-string. If you want to play classical, grab a, well a classical. If you want to play hard rock, grab an electric and a few pedals. I mean, in addition just to sounding different, they really do play differently.
I mean, currently I've got my acoustic pretty much sitting in its case in case I need it and I've always got an electric ready to practice and to gig on, but that's because I've got nothing right now that demands acoustic and a ton of shit that demands an electric going on right now. If you end up sticking with it and playing it enough that you need to grab another kind, then you can do that down the road, but I'd go with whatever fits what you want.
Also, keep in mind that an acoustic you can play anywhere with just the guitar, and electric you'll need an amp/cables to use it, so if that's a factor, take it into account.
As for the "nylon acoustic" thing... that would be an acoustic with nylon strings, or a classical guitar. There's not only a different sound to a steel string and a classical, but the classical guitar has a wider, flatter fingerboard, is stupidly hard to change strings on, and you would tend not to use a pick with a classical. As a warning, if you get a Classical guitar under no circumstances put steel strings on it. DO NOT STRING A CLASSICAL WITH STEEL STRINGS. That would destroy the guitar.
Classicals are softer and have a warmer tone than steel strings, which can be good or bad depending on what you're playing on it.
But I'm not sure if they use steel or nylon strings...
More than likely steel strings
Nylon is rarely used outside of classical, folk and (don't laugh) metal music
And I wasn't going to laugh. I was more going to make a "whuh?" noise and stare at the computer screen for a while...
Metallica -- Battery has a nylon string acoustic intro, just as an example
It is rather odd, lots of metalheads who came into Guitar Center when I worked there would ogle the nylon-stringed guitars and start playing all kinds of fancy classical music
I guess they're both very technically demanding styles of music and they attract that mindset
Yep, pretty much. I think metalheads (myself included) just like showing off, and classical songs are a good way to do that when you don't have your rig handy.
Unless you're using a magnetic pickup. I guess then you'd better stick with steel.
Also re: guitars warping by being strung upside down from the prior page:
Any cheapass entry level guitar has a couple of years of life in it. Warping from the strings being strung upside down isn't going to ruin it before the new guitarist either outgrows the instrument or gives up on it.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH